How to Tame a Six-Line Wrasse (bully)...

I got a gorgeous yellow candy hogfish last week, acclimated, introduced, everybody happy. A few days later, my six-line started terrorizing the poor fish. The hogfish finally dove in a cave and wouldn't come out. I can't stand to see a fish bullied, so I thought I'd have to take the wrasse out and put him in time-out or something. I tried the inverted water bottle trick, but he wouldn't come near it. I stuck the net in the water and was hoping to catch him off guard during feeding time (I actually caught a pseudochromis that way once), but no luck there. I tried rearranging some of the rocks to see if that would throw him off, but no luck again. It finally dawned on me to try a little reverse psychology. I stuck the net in the water near the cave where the hogfish was holed up and just left it there for the day. The hogfish finally came out and just hung around that net all day. The wrasse wouldn't go near it. The next morning, I left the net out of the tank to see what would happen. The hogfish came out and the wrasse didn't bother him at all, and hasn't since. How weird is that? Well, it's worth a try before you take the whole tank apart to catch a bullying six-line wrasse!

 

THAT was a genius idea! hopefully it keeps working!